Elaine

If you're curious about the business of selling photos online, but overwhelmed with questions such as what website (or blog) do you need, how and where do you start, and how much is it all going to cost, you'll find this article to be a welcome relief. We're about to go on a friendly and mind-opening adventure into the world of Squidoo.

But before we do, I'm sure you're aware that the many options out there can make things quite overwhelming at times. That can lead to confusion... and many people end up just not taking action at all. Where do you start? Blog or create a mini site? Design the site yourself or outsource? Photoshop? Web graphics? And how much time will an online photo business take up?

Of course, somewhere along the line, you need to actually just start doing something. Thankfully, for all you photographers, artists and modern day online entrepreneurs, a cool solution exists. The solution is called Squidoo. "Squidoo (is) a profitable, effective and free marketing strategy you can tap into for every niche you are involved in..."

Just picture your local book store, your favorite coffee shop and Wikipedia, all mixed together, and you sort of get the idea of what a Squidoo lens (or web-page) is like.

"Intelligent people who cared about other users, and wanted to share with them the fruits of their experience and expertise, build a LENS. A 'lens' is used to look through - and see things from a unique perspective... that of the person who created the lens. Squidoo calls these folks 'Lensmasters' - and gives them the creative tools to build lenses on just about anything they like."

But how can this help you with your selling photos online projects?

Well, for starters... Squidoo takes care of all the stuff that many artists, photographers and entrepreneurs don't want to think about. (Such as hosting, domain name, layout, etc). And then it leaves you an open canvas to create pictures in words, and share your best ideas to the world.

And, if you can talk about what you do, then you can write about it too. Squidoo makes it easy for you to start up a lens on a subject of your choice. Just write in your own voice, and focus on original, fresh and relevant content. If you have photos to promote or sell, put them on an image hosting site (and link to them from your lens - it's easy to do).

Over-deliver with helpful, remarkable content and watch as people come to your lens, read, sign up to your newsletter (or guest book) and click through to the sites you recommend. Do that and your lens will attracts lots of visitors, a good ranking, and quite possibly gets found in the search engines, providing you do a few things right.

You can see how I have set up my lens on the subject of selling photographs here: (www.squidoo.com/sellingphotosonline). It's a good idea to tell people who visit your lens to rate your lens and sign your guest book too. That will help to boost your lens popularity. So... if you wouldn't mind... thanks!

Of course there's a few tricks and methods to learn to make a successful lens. But with a little effort and exploration you can give it a go like I have done. And now that you know about this great website alternative, you have no excuses whatsoever to go and create your own remarkable, selling photos online adventure. See you there!

Copyright Martin Hurley 2007

Martin Hurley, the Sell Photos Online dude is an unconventional modern day artist and photographer who helps people uncover their inner talents and passions... and make money from taking photos! Why not start selling your photos online? Visit now to get powerful tips, ideas and secrets and sign up to my free ezine. Learn more about Selling Photos Online And Squidoo here.